Daniela Denby-Ashe

Biography

Daniela Denby-Ashe was born on August 9, 1978 in London, England as Daniela Jolanta Denby-Ashe. She is an actress, known for North & South (2004), My Family (2000) and Waterloo Road (2006).

In 2004 she took the lead role of Margaret Hale in the BBC TV drama adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North & South, and in 2006 played Mary in the science fiction TV series Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts. Her other television roles include Office Gossip, Rescue Me, Is Harry on the Boat?, and The Afternoon Play. From 2003 she appeared in the Radio 4 comedy Ring Around the Bath.

In 2007, she starred as Robert Maxwell’s secretary in Maxwell, a BBC drama about his life.

In December 2008 she appeared in BBC Four’s supernatural drama series Crooked House, and in October 2010 she starred in an episode of the ITV detective drama Midsomer Murders. In April 2009 she appeared in the fourth series of the BBC drama Waterloo Road as deceitful supply teacher, Jem Allen. In April 2012, she returned to the drama as a new regular character, Lorraine Donegan. The character, a former pupil taught by current headteacher Michael Byrne (Alec Newman), played an important role in a storyline that has seen the current school move from its location in Rochdale to a new site in Greenock, Scotland at the end of the seventh series. The character appeared regularly throughout the eighth series, however the character left the school toward the end of the series due to a disagreement with Michael, leading to her handing the school over to LEA control.